19 November 2008

On the Fly

I tried a bunch of things at the soft opening for On the Fly, the new venture from the folks that brought you Dragonfly. The space adjacent to the gourmet vegan spot is conceptualized as a take-out featuring street food in all international forms and flavors.

There were a number of samples available. I tried different empanadas (for some reason the chalk board menu had a tilde, although it isn't spelled that way to my knowledge). There was a curried vegetable empanada, a chili empanada and an apple empanada that was a dessert.

The falafel sandwich was divine. The falafel was soft, mildly seasoned and deeply green. It came with tomatoes, onion and some type of thin green lettuce in a tahini sauce/hummus combination. I added the hot sauce, made with restaurant-grown peppers. Proprietor Magdiale Wolmark was pleased as punch with his hot sauce. It was not mislabeled. It wasn't a mild sauce. It wasn't a slightly spicy sauce. It was a fiery hot sauce that added enough bite to some of the dishes to bring a smile to my face. I'll give it a thumbs up on the sauce and a thumbs up on the falafel sandwich.

I'm going to have to go back to try the Vegan cheesesteak, made from portabella mushrooms and a vegan cheese sauce known as V whiz. There is also a veggie burger known as the rowdy burger.

They offer a limited selection of organic soda, beer and wine. They had Wolaver's IPA and something from St. Peter's. There also was an inexpensive white and red wine that were featured. I'm not sure if there are additional beverages or not--I swung in and out pretty quickly.

This is a really cool idea. Vegan comfort food made by a talented chef seems like a home run in my book. Think of it as Dragonfly food on a Panera Bread budget.